RimuHosting: Mighty Linux Servers.  Support Worth Raving About
Plans & Pricing
Server Recommendation Tool
Server Types
  VPS
  Semi-dedicated Server
  Dedicated Server
Server Locations
  Dallas
  London
  Australia
VPS Technology
Hardware
Data Centers
Linux Distributions
Applications
Maintenance Notices
Support Ticket
Control Panel
HOWTO Articles
Forums
VPS control panel
Billing details
Receipts
Contact details
DNS
Reverse DNS
Console-over-SSH
FTP backup space
Backup mail server
About
Staff
News
Customer Testimonials
Sales Inquiry
Link To Us
Terms and Conditions
Site Map

Order VPS Hosting
Order a VPS, Semi- dedicated or Dedicated server in Dallas, London or Australia.

Get Assistance
Ask our support team about your hosting requirements.


Host where the staff takes pride in making customers happy

These machines are really nicely set up -- it's like moving into a furnished room.

- Ben (#240/269)
Home > Support > HOWTO List > Linux > Hostname

Working with Linux howtos

Changing a Hostname

Want to change your server's hostname?

There are a few places you should check.

Edit the name in /etc/hosts

Edit /etc/sysconfig/network.  It'll contain something like this:

NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME="yourserver.com"

Edit /etc/hostname.  e.g.  echo "yourserver.com" > /etc/hostname

Reboot your server, or just run: "hostname --file /etc/hostname" i.e. set the host name based on the name in the /etc/hostname file.

Applications that were running before you changed the hostname will probably not reflect the new host name until after an application (or server) restart.

Of course the server's hostname can be anything you want it to be.  It doesn't mean anything to external servers.  They will rely on public DNS information.